Sherry woke up that morning more annoyed and confused than she had been during this entire trip. She had just admitted the previous night that she could be developing feelings for her hyperactive farm partner. And she was sure that it didn’t make any sense whatsoever. She wasn’t even sure if they were friends, much less if she could have feelings for him.
She really just wanted time to sort all of this out alone, without Pastry there to constantly confuse her. But of course she could never have that because he was the first thing she saw every morning.
When she saw him at her bedroom door, she wanted to be mad at him. She wanted to curse him for making her question herself and for making her feel so weird. But one look at his smile and all that anger disappeared, which only made her more frustrated. How could this be happening to her?
At least today, she would finally have some time away from him, she thought while she ate her breakfast. Pastry had promised yesterday that, starting today, she would get to interact with his family one-on-one. She was actually looking forward to the day for once.
So of course the universe had to spit in her plans.
“What!?” she shouted. She couldn’t possibly fathom what she just heard.
“Ah said,” Granny Orchard replied. “Yer coming grocery shoppin’ with me today. Is that really such a wild concept to you city folk? Ah mean, Ah know that things work differently here but Ah would’ve thought that shoppin’ wasn’t one of them.”
“No, no. I understand that part,” Sherry growled. “I just don’t understand why he is coming with us.” She roughly pointed a hoof at Pastry, who wilted away from her fury.
Granny Orchard shook her head and gave them a weak smile. “Ah just thought that since the two of ya were such good friends, ya wouldn’t mind going shoppin’ together.”
Friends? She really thought that the two of them were friends? Sherry wanted to call out that that wasn’t true. That they weren’t friends and that she didn’t want to spend time with him, but she couldn’t. She knew deep down that it wasn’t true. She wasn’t sure why, but she did. So she simply sighed and agreed, saying she would love to go. At least it made Pastry happy, she thought, burying the tiny smile that threatened to show at the thought..
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For the first time since this whole ordeal started, Sherry finally got to see what the town market was like. Sure she walked through it on her way to the farm, but she never really looked at it until now. The market was a bustling hub. Everypony in town seemed to be here, either shopping for essentials or trying to get ponies to buy their wares. Everywhere she looked, somepony was doing something. But she didn’t care about any of them, at least subconsciously, because she only ever found herself looking at one of them.
Pastry Dough.
She just found herself transfixed with him and the way he interacted with the world around him, even while doing something as simple as shopping. He always had a smile on his face, finding the positives, no matter what was happening. Just bought something overpriced? The folks who sold it could use the money. Somepony just trip you rushing to who knows where? At least Ah’m not in the way anymore.
That was something about him that made her heart feel so conflicted. She found it so oddly refreshing to hear him being so happy no matter what the world threw at him. Nopony in the city was like that. Everypony was just looking out for themselves. But not Pastry. And that made her smile. But it also hurt to see him being pushed around so much because of his kind nature. She just wanted to go up to them and knock them out for daring to hurt that precious smile of his.
That was another thing about him that made her feel so funny inside. His smile. It was just so pure. It was the type of smile that not only makes one feel good inside, but also makes them feel like everything is going to be okay, like nothing can go wrong now. Over the course of the week she’d been there, it certainly did that to her. Anytime she wanted to be mad, she would just see that smile, and everything would feel just a little less hopeless.
She blushed and looked towards the ground. Yes, it seemed, every time she was down, Pastry was there for her. Even if she pushed him away, he was still quietly comforting her by giving her the space she needed.
And, as a bonus, he was quite the cute individual. Maybe it wasn’t so unbelievable that she could have feelings for him. Afterall, he seemed to be a perfect gentlecolt in every way.
Sherry smiled at the thought and shook her head. She really should get back to shopping. She had just being staring a Pastry and was starting to get in the way. Maybe everypony else around her was angry, but she felt just that little bit better.
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The walk back home was an uneventful journey. Even though Sherry was forced to carry the majority of the groceries, she couldn’t care less. In fact, she felt better than she ever had before during this trip. She was sure that going shopping with those two was going to confuse her more, but she ended up figuring things out just watching Pastry being himself.
Maybe things were going to start picking up around here, she thought as she put the groceries away and headed to her room. It was then when she spotted what looked like a piece of paper on her bed. Picking it up, she realized it was a note that read:
Meet me in the east orchard tomorrow at dinner.
There was no name attached to it, but Sherry had a feeling she knew who it was from. What they wanted from her, she didn’t know, but she did know that everything was probably going to be alright. Afterall, it wouldn’t be the first time she spent time alone with Pastry Dough.